Mr. Borlace relates that although
the Cornish were driven out of Devonshire about
the year 735 A.D. the warfare did not end until
Athelstan fixed the Tamar as the boundary between
the two races in 936.

These entrenchments and stockades are imprints which
two centuries of border warfare might well leave on the
face of the country. There are ancient earth works at
Arrowan, and Carrick Lug - Cliff Castles they are
termed.

There are also remains of Defensive Earth Works on
Goonhilly Downs and on the estate of Halwyn is a
circular Camp called The Round, containing about an
acre situated about a mile from Porthallow.

Organic remains are to be found in the rocks of Nelby
Cove, Porthallow.

Mr. Lawrence when 88 years old told me he remembered
soldiers being encamped in the Round Camp at Halwyn to
watch the smugglers.

These earthworks are doubtless of very ancient
construction, in view of the fact that an engagement
between Ivor, King of Wales, and the Saxons, in the
year 680, took place at Heyle, which Whitaker supposes
to have been situated near the Mouth of the Helford.
The Saxons were defeated by the Cornish.

In 1735 at Condorrow, near the South Entrance to the
Helford River, were found 24 gallons of Roman brass
money, all of the age of Constantine and his family
from 259 to 284 A.D.

In the year 1833 Mr. Sam. James, the then freeholder of
the Estate of Trelan, had occasion to cut a new road
through a large field called The Bahow - door or gate
hinges. In the course of the work he came upon several
graves situated in a sheltered place on a northern
slope of the land near the southern margin of Goonhilly
Downs. They were two or three feet below the surface of
the ground and lay in a group together.

Each grave was formed of six stones set on edge, two at
each side, and one at each end besides the covering
stones, and they lay in a direction nearly east and
west.

In one of them was found a very perfect mirror of
bronze, together with several beads of various
substance, some in a perfect state, others fragmentary,
with other bronze articles, such as parts of fibulae
etc., all apparently personal ornaments, and probably
indicating the interment of a female. There were also
several implements of hand iron stone.

Several of these relics were dispersed at this time and
cannot now be traced. Mr. Edwards of Helston generously
placed those which survived at my disposal, and I have
since added them to the antiquities in the British
Museum.

The Trelan Bahow (St Keverne)
mirror is an object of great rarity. It is
circular in form, 6 inches in diameter, with a
well formed handle which projects two and a half
inches from the edge. Mr. Edwards informs me that
when it was found one side was quite brightly
polished. The whole mirror is now richly covered
with aerugo, but a portion of the polished surface
is still discernible. Both front and back are
perfectly flat, and although the plate is very
thin it has no appearance of having been furnished
with a strengthening rim.

Two other distinct finds are recorded viz. one in
Scotland and four in England and although none of the
examples resemble this in every respect it can scarcely
be doubted that the Trelan mirror belongs to the same
period of art to which the rest are assigned.

1. One was found at Gilton, a Saxon Cemetery near
Sandwich. Kent. 1763.

2. Specimen purchased in Paris, place of discovery
unknown.

3. In Museum at Redford, found in excavation for Warden
Tunnel of Midland Railway.

4. A bronze mirror and handles of two others found in
cemetery at Stamford near Plymouth.

The more perfect of these mirrors resembles that of
Trelan. The handle of the second mirror might have been
punched by the same tool.

Two only of the Trelan glass beads remain, each about
seven-eighth of an inch in diameter, the perforation
three-fifths of an inch. One is a deep blue paste
similar to that of which the celebrated Portland ware
is made, and the other a tinted black and grey.

Rings of Brass. Two of them remain entire and are of
one and three-sixteenths and two and
fourteen-sixteenths inches external diameter
respectively. The latter is made of metal of uniform
thickness 1/4" on plane of its diameter, the other
rather stouter and of unequal thickness. Fragments of
similar rings were also discovered.

Various bronze articles of personal use or ornament, of
which nothing remains but portions of fibulae.

Stone implements which are lost. If seems impossible
that specimens so skilfully and artistically wrought
and punched as those from Trelan could have been
produced at a period anterior to that of the usual
stone or bronze implements, or of the rude pottery
found at Morval Hill. The most recent date however
assigned to these late Celtic relics corresponds with
the establishment of the Roman occupation of England.
Whilst therefore there is abundant evidence of Roman
and even Saxon interments within tumuli and other
burial places of earlier British date affording
frequent opportunity for the mingling of Roman and
Saxon era, and other relics with those of undoubtedly
earlier periods, it seems to be quite contrary to all
acknowledged experience that the art manufacture of a
nation should suddenly, and within the limits of
historical record, be found to become so deteriorated
as the change from the quality and beauty of the Trelan
relics to the rude simplicity of the most perfect
paleotave or funeral urn. Yet nothing less than this
seemed to be involved in the argument referred to.
Journal Roy Inste Vol XV April 1874.

Trelanvean Cross is now supposed to be standing on its
original sight (site).
It was overturned about 60 years ago as people imagined
that a crock of gold might be underneath.
Mr. Richard Smith who lived at Trelan for 60 years put
it in its old place before he left.

The Castle.
The old castle in the village stood on the site of the
late Dr. Leverton Spry's house. It was shaped like
the letter T with the perpendicular line abutting the
road. There was a broad staircase in the castle, and a
large upper room - as big as the lower schoolroom -
with a ceiling on which was represented Chevy Chase.

Roscruge Beacon.
The above stands 580 ft. high. It was a station in the
Great French War and it affords a very extensive view
to the North and East.